Medical Isolation Cart
University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
University of Michigan Medical Innovation Center
Collaborators: Gregory Yanik, MD - University of Michigan Department of Pediatric Oncology and Hematology
Sabina Saddiqui, MD - University of Michigan Department of Surgery, Section of Pediatric Surgery
Ulysses Sean Vance - University of Michigan Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
James D. Geiger, MD - University of Michigan Department of Surgery, Section of Pediatric Surgery
Laura L. McCormick, PhD - University of Michigan, Medical Innovation Center
Douglas Mullen, PhD - University of Michigan, Medical Innovation Center
Hannah J. Hensel, MBA - University of Michigan, Medical Innovation Center
Student Collaborators:
Claire Kang
Yunjae Lee
Publication: Development of an Isolation Bed for Patients
Undergoing MIBG Treatment for Neuroblastoma.
Presented at American Pediatric Surgery Association
(APSA) 43rd Annual Meeting. San Antonio, Texas
The University of Michigan Pediatric Intensive Care Unit and Cancer Care Center Medical Isolation
Cart (the “ISO Cart” Project) is based on the initial studies of a patient care room in the Cancer Care
Center of the University of Michigan Hospital. This investigation into creating a mobile shielding unit
involved a partnership between medical practitioners and design professionals in the generation of
criteria and solutions based on the uniqueness in the practices in the recovery of pediatric cancer
care patients during neuroblastoma treatments. Likewise, the research investigated designing for risk
aversion in medical situations, exhibiting both the affordances for hazards and the relative dilemmas
of resolution in the articulation of the size and space of medical procedures.
Questions
1. What are the shielding requirements during transportation in both a general hospital setting and in
an emergency situation?
2. What are the treatment types based on patient age, patient girth, and various time-based spans in
hours per day of exposure?
3. How do life safety guidelines and egress patterns affect the proposed architectural interventions,
and what are the corresponding classifications of interior and exterior patient care zones based on
treatment types?
Methods
1. Understanding current practices in predicting levels of shielding.
2. The development of threshold patterns, transitions, and levels of resistance to radiation exposure.
3. The development of material properties for layering protective shields, of the less-dense, more
light weight materials (acrylic, tungsten, lead blankets).
4. The evaluation of thresholds in a patient isolation room and its capacity in limiting the amount of
exposure to caregivers, staff and family, dependent on the level of radiation treatment performed.
Bathroom protections for pediatric neuroblastoma patients undergoing treatment with a targeted radioactive
particle called metaiodobenzyguanidne (MIBG)